The US Senate overwhelmingly advanced sweeping sanctions legislation targeting Russia’s energy revenues Tuesday, voting 86–12 to move forward with a bill designed to hit one of the Kremlin’s most important sources of funding for its war against Ukraine. The decisive bipartisan vote cleared the legislation’s first procedural hurdle and gave new momentum to a sanctions package championed for more than a year by the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington as the vote took place, following talks with President Donald Trump at the White House, Graham’s funeral and a meeting with senators on Capitol Hill. The vote represented a powerful signal that a large bipartisan majority in the Senate is prepared to raise the economic cost of Russia’s continued aggression and target the revenue streams that allow Moscow to sustain the war. “Sanctions pressure on Russia is very important,” Zelensky told reporters ahead of the vote, saying the measure would weaken Moscow’s ability to finance its invasion while sending a strong message of support to Ukraine. “It’s also a big signal to Europe, big signal to Ukraine, big support of our people, so I’m very thankful,” he said. Targeting the money behind Putin’s war The legislation goes directly after one of Russia’s greatest remaining advantages: the billions of dollars Moscow continues to earn from energy exports despite years of Western sanctions.